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David Gedge says: “During the summer of 2006 we were invited to record a session for 'One Music With Huw Stephens' - a show on BBC Radio 1. However, this was the year after the 'return' of The Wedding Present and we'd basically been pretty much continually on tour ever since the release of the 'Take Fountain' album the previous year. Accordingly, we didn't really have any new songs of our own and so I decided that we could pursue that other favourite pastime of The Wedding Present... the recording of cover versions! Arranging covers is fascinating, actually, because you get to explore how other people write songs and I think that can often feed back into your own writing. I thought it would be interesting to pick a song from each of four different decades... the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s. No particular reason... if we'd've been asked to record five tracks I would have thrown in the 50s, too. So I chose four classic pop songs for us to look at. They weren't particularly 'favourites' - although I have always loved 'Step Inside Love' and 'Lovin’ You' - they were just songs that I thought the band could successfully 're-imagine'. I have never seen the point of recording faithful copies; I have always felt that any Wedding Present version has to bear the stamp of The Wedding Present. And I think we accomplished that particularly well on this session. I'm pretty proud of this E.P., in fact. I remember Graeme Ramsay, our drummer at the time, initially hating the idea of us doing a 'Take That' song but I think he eventually came round to it, especially after The Guardian said it was an interesting 'post-rock' take on the original, or words to that effect..." Track-listing - Step Inside Love/Lovin’ You/Our Lips Are Sealed/Back For Good/

2022 Repress On Elephantine, Cairo-based Maurice Louca guides a 12-piece ensemble through a 38-minute masterwork that might best be described as panoramic. Elements of free improvisation, Sun Ra's cosmic jazz, gorgeous Arabic melody, trancelike African and Yemeni music and minimalism meet in his wholly unique compositional vision. Louca also makes vital contributions on guitar and piano, and inspires stirring performances from a global lineup.

One of the most gifted, prolific and adventurous figures on Egypt's thriving experimental arts scene, Louca has in recent years garnered a global reputation through two previous solo albums and an expanding, evolving lineup of genre-defying collaborations. The Wire called his 2014 sophomore solo effort, Salute the Parrot, "remarkable music-dense, driven and splashed with colour." In 2017, the self-titled debut by Lekhfa, the trio of Louca and vocalists Maryam Saleh and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh, was praised as an "edgy triumph" in The Guardian and picked by BBC Radio 3's Late Junction as one of the very best 12 albums of 2017.

For Louca, 36, Elephantine serves as both the pinnacle of his wide-ranging experience and a bold next step in his development as a composer, arranger and bandleader. The celebrated Egyptian visual artist Maha Maamoun has created the album cover art, following her contribution to Salute the Parrot. "There was a blessed thing about the process of making this record," Louca says of the sessions, held last year in Stockholm and featuring the leader on guitar and piano. "The dynamic between us musically but also as people ...What these musicians delivered was really more than I could ask for, Everyone played their hearts out on this record."

The music-from its pensive lulls through its stretches of hard-grooving hypnosis and moments of avant-jazz catharsis-testifies to that rapport. Best absorbed as a continuous performance, Elephantine's six individually named tracks nonetheless present striking self-contained landscapes. "The Leper" entrances through a deft use of repetition that Louca gleaned from cosmic jazz, African and Yemeni music and other transcendental modal traditions. (Those who've followed Louca's work might be reminded of the Dwarfs of East Agouza, his mesmeric unit with Shalabi and Sun City Girls' Alan Bishop.)

"Laika" manages to evoke the minimalists, though on the combustible terms of '60s and '70s free jazz; "One More for the Gutter," on which Louca ingeniously pits one half of his ensemble against the other, albeit in a synergistic way, mines similarly fiery terrain. "The Palm of a Ghost" distills the band to a Cairo-rooted core, featuring stirring spontaneous melodies from oud player Natik Awayez, violinist Ayman Asfour and vocalist Nadah El Shazly. The album's title track follows, and it too blurs the border between composition and improvisation with gorgeously atmospheric results. "Al Khawaga," with its colossal ensemble riffs, beautifully dirty swing and impassioned blowing, is an ideal finale.

The latest from Burnski's Vivid label is a three way split, six track affair with Oldboy, Xander and Longeez each dispatching a pair of tunes in the label's trademark roughneck breakbeat style. - Oldboy kicks off proceedings with the speedy junglisms of 'Blackbird' before the chunkier, funkier and a little more traditionally paced breaks heft of 'Walrus Party'. Xander's 'If I Tell EM' and 'Get To The Point' both plays off two step rhythmic twists and menacing bass against dreamy synths and more breakbeaty flourishes, before Longeez closes proceedings with the slightly sparser 'Evermore' - super sharp hi hats and echoing rasta dialogue - and the appropriately spinback-peppered 'Wheel Up'.

Fake Records is back with a bang with this limited hand stamped 12" by Len Lewis (Swag Records London)

4 originals produced way back in the late nineties / early naughties, this will be the first in a line of some amazing tracks from the vaults, keep your eyes and ears open >I

Featuring Squirrel Flower and Liam O’Neill (SUUNS). Recommended If You Like: Mount Eerie, Low, Richard Swift, the Weather Station, Lomelda, Fleet Foxes, Squirrel Flower, L’Rain. Cedric Noel is a songwriter, bassist, collaborator and producer currently based in Montréal, Québec. The newest longplayer from Tio'tiá:ke/Montreal staple Cedric Noel lands with a stunning sense of surety and self. Hang Time stands as a high water mark for a songwriter who's spent the past decade quietly expanding the borders of his music. Longtime fans will recognize the fluid elements of the album’s open-ended rock formations: reflective strumming, soaring choruses, searing guitar lines, subtle bass grooves; all occasionally dissolving into pools of pure ambience. New listeners will find surprises throughout: threads of folk pop, ambient and sound collage fasten the foundations of this expressive whole. However, what’s most striking on Hang Time is Noel’s newfound sense of voice, both literal and metaphorical. Written primarily in 2017-18 during an intense period of self-reflection, this collection of songs finds Noel wrestling profoundly with his sense of identity, self and place. The album’s material was captured faithfully at The Pines, a beloved downtown Montreal studio whose doors shuttered shortly after amidst the strain of the pandemic. Noel worked closely and patiently with friend and engineer Steve Newton, ensuring the songs had the time and space needed to come fully to fruition. Hang Time features subtle rhythm work from drummer Liam O’Neill (SUUNS) and guest spots from Brigitte Naggar (Common Holly) and Tim Crabtree (Paper Beat Scissors) among others. The album opens in mid-air with ‘Comuu’, a song that implores a becoming-more while hovering triumphantly. Then follows a suite of songs (‘Headspace’, ‘Keep’, ‘Stilling’) that recall the heart-rending power of y2k-era Low, albeit with a more vigorous beat. On ‘Bass Song’, an intimate duet with musician Ella Williams (Squirrel Flower) that explores the depths of interpersonal constriction. At the crux of the album sits ‘Born’, a deceptively pleasant-sounding song that explores the confounding emotionality of adoption before fading into a distended soundfield. Throughout the back half of the album, Noel double’s down on this commitment to his genuine, proud, Black self. The most confrontational track, ‘Allies’ finds him refraining “Are you on my side?” as a trailing guitar solo interweaves a Malcolm X soundbite, eventually engulfing the composition. Glorious lead single ‘Nighttime (Skin)’ traces the artist’s sense of ancestral dissociation through to a triumphant moment of pride in self-acceptance. Throughout Hang Time, Noel finds a way to ask hard questions (both of the listener and himself) in ways that are compassionate, open and honest. The ebb and flow of tension and tenderness that moves within these tracks helps to grow the heart and redefine what Black music can be in 2021.

Marking over 16 years as an artist, Robert James unveils his debut album Battle of The Planets. A milestone in any musician’s career, the LP illustrates the breadth of Rob’s tastes and influences, exploring the rugged terrain of planet electronica. Ranging from breaks and electro to house and techno, Battle of The Planets was made during lockdown, a period of creativity and isolation for many artists around the world. Across 10 skillfully produced cuts Rob takes us on an intrepid adventure into the cosmos, where mysterious atmospheres and uplifting melodies sit side by side with captivating dance floor rhythms. Many shades of his personality come through on this album, all tied together by his unique sonic identity; informed by his years spent on the dance floor, behind the decks and in the studio. On Battle of The Planets Robert James presents a distillation of his extensive knowledge and experience into one succinct, highly engaging body of work.

The four members of Sad Daddy; Brian Martin, Joe Sundell, Rebecca
Patek, and Melissa Carper, all conspired and united in the sudden spare
time of 2020 to create their third album, 'Way Up in the Hills'
Convening at Brian's cabin in Greers Ferry, Arkansas to write and record the album
together, the collective decided on a down-home, back-to-the-country theme--a
refection on the state of the world and the desire to go back to simpler ways and
self- sufciency, goin' way up in the hills and letting the chaos settle. Recording
engineer Jordan Trotter brought his equipment into the cabin and the band
recorded the 14 original tunes live and in a circle. Half of the tracks were only a
week old and the other half had grown to be Sad Daddy standards since the
band's last album. The feeling of being at a lakeside "home" studio in the serene
Arkansas woods was distilled into sound as Sad Daddy explored using porch
stomps, hamboning, the sounds of insects buzzing and bacon sizzling to create a
picking-on-the-porch vibe into the fun and refreshing creation of 'Way Up in the
Hills'.
Forming in the spring of 2010, Arkansas outft Sad Daddy has traveled down
many a road--together and separately-- at times focusing on their solo projects
and then reuniting for a band project.

AOW is a new collaborative project from Dan Ghenacia and Tolga Fidan emerging from a new period of creativity and inspiration for the Lisbon-based artists.

Long time friends and fellow lynchpins of the European house and techno scene, Ghenacia and Fidan started working closely together through 2020 and 2021 while sharing studio space at Boa Lab. They found themselves at the heart of an artistic community of musicians, designers and engineers, which took shape around Ghenacia’s experiments with alpha wave generation, inspired by Bryon Gysin’s Dream Machine.

Ghenacia and engineer Anine Kirsten developed a modern update on Gysin’s 1950s design, which has been installed at exhibitions in London, Lisbon and Paris. At its heart, the project explores the natural hallucinatory effects of alpha wave projections on the eyelids, and the therapeutic benefits of the experience. Out of this spirit of psychedelically-charged experimentation, Ghenacia and Fidan have been working beyond the confines of their typical club-oriented material, creating ambient soundtracks to artist exhibitions in Boa and auditory backdrops to Alpha Wave Experience installations.

AOW bridges the gap between this new period of creativity and Ghenacia and Fidan’s life-long passion for electronic dance music. Compared to the strictures of house and techno they’re best known for, the three tracks on Hear the Light explore a more open, inquisitive sound with roots in UK electronica and West Coast psychedelic breaks (a seminal scene when Ghenacia was in the Bay Area in the 90s). Crucially though, it’s not a pointedly retro sound, but rather a result of rich streams of inspiration meeting and passing through crisp, modernist production techniques to offer something
genuinely fresh on the ears.

Working outside of their comfort zones and guided by creative philosophies springing from research, shared experience and community, Hear the Light marks a new step forward for Ghenacia and Fidan, with many more developments promised for the future.

Iconic singer Mavis Staples is an alchemist of American music, and during her 70+ year career one of her most beloved musical mo?ments was her riveting performance in Martin Scorsese's film' The Last Waltz,' performing "The Weight" with The Band, a moment that forged a life-long friendship between her and Levon Helm. Staples came to Woodstock, NY to perform as part of Helm's re?nowned Midnight Ramble series, and the ensuing concert-available now for the first time on the rousing new ANTI- Records release Carry Me Home-would mark a personal high watermark for both artists. Captured live in the summer of 2011, Carry Me Home showcases two of the past century's most iconic voices coming together in love and joy, tracing their shared roots and celebrating the enduring power of faith and music. The setlist was righteous that night, mixing vintage gospel and soul with timeless folk and blues, and the performances were loose and playful, fueled by an ecstatic atmosphere that was equal parts family reunion and tent revival. Read between the lines, though, and there's an even more poignant story at play here. Nei?ther Staples nor Helm knew that this would be their last performance together-the collection marks one of Helm's final recordings before his death-and listening back now, a little more than a decade later, tunes like "This May Be The Last Time" and "Farther Along" take on new, bittersweet meaning. The result is an album that's at once a time capsule and a memorial, a blissful homecoming and a fond farewell, a once-in-a-lifetime concert-and friendship-preserved for the ages. Staples and the night's soulful crew of backup singers handle the vast majority of the vocal work here, but it's perhaps album closer "The Weight," which features Helm chiming in with lead vocals for the first time, that stands as the concert's most emotional moment. "It never crossed my mind that it might be the last time we'd see each other," says Staples. "He was so full of life and so happy that week. He was the same old Levon I'd always known, just a beautiful spirit inside and out." "My dad built The Midnight Rambles to restore his spirit, his voice, and his livelihood," says Helm's daughter, Amy, who sang backup vocals with her father and Staples at their performance. "He'd risen back up from all that had laid him down, and to have Mavis come sing and sanctify that stage was the ultimate triumph for him."

Iconic singer Mavis Staples is an alchemist of American music, and during her 70+ year career one of her most beloved musical mo?ments was her riveting performance in Martin Scorsese's film' The Last Waltz,' performing "The Weight" with The Band, a moment that forged a life-long friendship between her and Levon Helm. Staples came to Woodstock, NY to perform as part of Helm's re?nowned Midnight Ramble series, and the ensuing concert-available now for the first time on the rousing new ANTI- Records release Carry Me Home-would mark a personal high watermark for both artists. Captured live in the summer of 2011, Carry Me Home showcases two of the past century's most iconic voices coming together in love and joy, tracing their shared roots and celebrating the enduring power of faith and music. The setlist was righteous that night, mixing vintage gospel and soul with timeless folk and blues, and the performances were loose and playful, fueled by an ecstatic atmosphere that was equal parts family reunion and tent revival. Read between the lines, though, and there's an even more poignant story at play here. Nei?ther Staples nor Helm knew that this would be their last performance together-the collection marks one of Helm's final recordings before his death-and listening back now, a little more than a decade later, tunes like "This May Be The Last Time" and "Farther Along" take on new, bittersweet meaning. The result is an album that's at once a time capsule and a memorial, a blissful homecoming and a fond farewell, a once-in-a-lifetime concert-and friendship-preserved for the ages. Staples and the night's soulful crew of backup singers handle the vast majority of the vocal work here, but it's perhaps album closer "The Weight," which features Helm chiming in with lead vocals for the first time, that stands as the concert's most emotional moment. "It never crossed my mind that it might be the last time we'd see each other," says Staples. "He was so full of life and so happy that week. He was the same old Levon I'd always known, just a beautiful spirit inside and out." "My dad built The Midnight Rambles to restore his spirit, his voice, and his livelihood," says Helm's daughter, Amy, who sang backup vocals with her father and Staples at their performance. "He'd risen back up from all that had laid him down, and to have Mavis come sing and sanctify that stage was the ultimate triumph for him."

Clear Vinyl

Bartosz Kruczynski - the sometimes-ambient producer also known by his more club-ready moniker, Earth Trax - returns to the Shall Not Fade catalogue with his third full-length album. The Sensual World LP draws from both the moody, industrial soundscape of the cold wave-inspired LP1; and the warmer, more ethereal undertones of its successor. Whilst lending stylistic aspects from both, his latest release maintains their mercuriality and textural complexity whilst at the same time resembling something distinctly new. This 13-tracker sees the Warsaw producer continue to prove himself as one of the most versatile and consistent producers in the game.

Composed and produced during the 2020 pandemic, The Sensual World contemplates eco/environmental aesthetics and recontextualizes the genres that Kruczynski took as a springboard for the inception of his musical career. The aptly-named "Dream Pop" and "Fireflies" use arpeggiated melodies, vocal chops and luscious pads to capture the transportive allure by which early Earth Trax releases have been recognised; whilst later in the record, "Pearl" and "Splash" pair these tropes with those of industrial techno to create two pulsating dancefloor heaters. Elsewhere, the focus is on sound design and rhythmic complexity, with sharp, crystalline acid melodies ("Metal") and "Dreams Made Flesh's" broken drill beats and epic synths. Whilst other tracks see Kruczynski tap into the "bittersweet dance floor moments" for which he has become renowned over the course of his illustrious career ("Nowhere"), The Sensual World also offers its listeners sonic respite with some stripped-back, down-tempo slow burners "Nowhere" and "Everlong".

A protean producer who nonetheless has succeeded in helming a truly inimitable and idiosyncratic sound, The Sensual World LP sees Kruczynski cater for everyone - from the emotional ravers to the more hard-faced warehouse dwellers.

LIMITED EDITION OF 300 YELLOW VINYL COPIES

Shawn Lee follows up his country-soul solo album "Rides Again", released in 2019, with an even more personal, intriguing set of songs. The US born and London based prolific singer, songwriter, musician, producer, arranger, filmmaker and author puts the story of "Rides Yet Again" in his own words.

"When the original pandemic lockdown of 2020 ascended upon the world, I found myself like many others a prisoner in my own home. I began thinking about making new music. What do I wanna do I pondered… 'Rides Again' was a personal once in a lifetime album or was it? After some reflection, I realised there was more to this story, this sound. As I eventually crept back to my studio ducking and diving all the way, I started writing and recording new songs for Rides YET Again. The lyrics heavily informed by life during lockdown, my new dog Carla and my recent health problems. I had suffered a stroke which left me with some brain damage and I struggled with Aphasia for well over a year with extremely impaired speech. It was hard … I found solace in song and a musical context to share my ups and downs. It was a beautiful place to retreat to. John Pickup brought his brilliant orchestral treatments. Also Nichol Thomson, Tom Walsh, Mike Davis & Andy Ross blessed me with their sublime horn stylings. Suffice to say I'm really quite fond of this little record. Much love to you wherever you may be."

Nathan Hose, known more commonly as N8NOFACE, has built a heavy history behind his name. Known for his previous work with Crime Killz and a string of solo mixtapes, EP’s and collab projects, he comes out swinging to close out 2021 with “Homicide”.
For Fans of: Screamers, Le Shok, Suicide, Xiu Xiu, Atari Teenage Riot
Both a full-length album of all new material and his debut Blackhouse release, N8 shows up with a catalog of raging synth-punk jams, knocked out with only a synthesizer, a computer, and the true-life humility and humanity only he can deliver. The dose of reality that lives within N8NOFACE’s lyrics resonate with a population of people who have stayed true to themselves all the while feeling disenfranchised. People needing an outlet and something raw and new over a year and a half long pandemic (and counting) is the allure behind N8NOFACE, and this record is sure to deliver that and more.
Southern California. A Jekyll-and-Hyde atmosphere of glitz and glamour, with a seedy dark side that lays as an unspoken wasteland in the streets. There’s a thriving underground that has always existed among the Southwest United States. It’s a melting pot of the punk, metal, and hip-hop scenes, skateboarding, art, underground fashion, and custom car cultures. It’s also a hotbed for some real-life shit, to say the least. Crime, drugs, homelessness, porn, and shady activity is part of the life; proof that the city is not only wide awake at night, but it burns white hot. With all the musings one would need to inspire nothing less than a prolific output, when it comes to Long Beach-by- way-of-Tucson synth-punk dynamo N8NOFACE, calling him prolific is an understatement.

anno returns with a 5 track ep from NYC's K Wata, resident DJ at NYC's Slink party.

Big one for us at RAD combining the energy of producers like Batu, Equiknoxx with some timeless Gescom / Autechre soundscapes.

250 copies only, stickered sleeves.

The second LP by California rock n roll unit SPICE expands their palette of damaged anthems and addiction poetics with a more bristling, visceral sound, distilled from years in the trenches of bands, break-ups, and breakdowns. Singer Ross Farrar explains their chemistry succinctly: "We all got in a room and this is what came out." Viv is named for a precursor project of bassist Cody Sullivan and violinist Victoria Skudlarek, but also alludes to broader notions of vividness, sonic, visual, and otherwise. Engineered by Jack Shirley and mixed/mastered by Sam Pura in Oakland, the mix achieves that rare balance of every element being elevated but distinct, with voices, strings, and drums each given space to blaze parallel paths. Opener "Recovery" captures SPICE at their stormy, weathered best, booming drums and East Bay riffs skidding out in a rockslide of rapture, regret, and bruised melody ("You sacrifice perfect days to laugh through the night / you have to get out of bed / and it's hard / and it's hard / it's so hard to admit"), peaking in Ian Simpson's poignant single-note vibrato guitar solo; Farrar agrees: "The guitar says what we cannot." Other tracks embrace the group's shredded pop potential ("Any Day Now," "Dining Out," "Live Scene") and their speedway ripper mode ("Threnody"), with detours into oblique instrumentals ("Melody Drive") and orchestral balladeering ("Ashes In The Birdbath"). But what unites and ignites these songs across different energies and arrangements is their specific sense of emotion. Rawness refined into reckonings, approaching truth, born of cold mornings, bad luck, and too many wrong turns. Waking up where you're not supposed to be, living a life you don't recognize. The album ends with no end to its narrative, still fighting, still slipping. Farrar calls "Climbing Down The Ladder" a "relapse song - telling people you're okay but you're still fucking up." Heartbeat drums march under heartbroken guitars in an elegant downward spiral of defeat, delusion, and desperate hope, dreamed more than believed: "I said it was the last time / but I was up so high / 100 miles / 1000 miles / no me in sight / I saw into the next life / I wasn't dead / I felt so vivid in the next life."

The second LP by California rock n roll unit SPICE expands their palette of damaged anthems and addiction poetics with a more bristling, visceral sound, distilled from years in the trenches of bands, break-ups, and breakdowns. Singer Ross Farrar explains their chemistry succinctly: "We all got in a room and this is what came out." Viv is named for a precursor project of bassist Cody Sullivan and violinist Victoria Skudlarek, but also alludes to broader notions of vividness, sonic, visual, and otherwise. Engineered by Jack Shirley and mixed/mastered by Sam Pura in Oakland, the mix achieves that rare balance of every element being elevated but distinct, with voices, strings, and drums each given space to blaze parallel paths. Opener "Recovery" captures SPICE at their stormy, weathered best, booming drums and East Bay riffs skidding out in a rockslide of rapture, regret, and bruised melody ("You sacrifice perfect days to laugh through the night / you have to get out of bed / and it's hard / and it's hard / it's so hard to admit"), peaking in Ian Simpson's poignant single-note vibrato guitar solo; Farrar agrees: "The guitar says what we cannot." Other tracks embrace the group's shredded pop potential ("Any Day Now," "Dining Out," "Live Scene") and their speedway ripper mode ("Threnody"), with detours into oblique instrumentals ("Melody Drive") and orchestral balladeering ("Ashes In The Birdbath"). But what unites and ignites these songs across different energies and arrangements is their specific sense of emotion. Rawness refined into reckonings, approaching truth, born of cold mornings, bad luck, and too many wrong turns. Waking up where you're not supposed to be, living a life you don't recognize. The album ends with no end to its narrative, still fighting, still slipping. Farrar calls "Climbing Down The Ladder" a "relapse song - telling people you're okay but you're still fucking up." Heartbeat drums march under heartbroken guitars in an elegant downward spiral of defeat, delusion, and desperate hope, dreamed more than believed: "I said it was the last time / but I was up so high / 100 miles / 1000 miles / no me in sight / I saw into the next life / I wasn't dead / I felt so vivid in the next life."

Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, JK Flesh) breathes new life into his FINAL project for an album on Helm’s ALTER label. Formed in 1984 out of an obsession with the industrial, noise & power electronics acts of the early eighties, FINAL made its public debut at the legendary Mermaid pub in Birmingham when Broadrick was just 14 years old. A string of cassette releases via his Post MortemRekordings label established the name within the underground noise scene of the time until increased activity with his various groups (Napalm Death, Head of David and later Godflesh) meant that FINAL naturally fell by the wayside before the end of the decade. Broadrick reactivated the project in 1993 during the British ambient “isolationism” period and FINAL's sound became focussed more on texture, producing beatless ambient work with a number of albums for labels like Sentrax, Utech, No Quarter and Neurot. ‘It Comes To Us All’ is the first FINAL album to appear on vinyl since 2015’s ‘Black Dollars’ on Downwards and continues to explore the textural nature of Broadrick’s ambient work - this time through a filter of blown-out harmonic noise that reconnects the project with its harsher roots. Rather than channelling the angst of early power-electronics, the noise here rumbles along blissfully through 8 untitled tracks, sombre in tone and at times beautiful. Melodies sampled from pop music are put through a process of decay, stripped of their form and worn down with a rusty, melancholic afterglow. Reducing all its parts to slow-motion shadows of their former selves, ‘It Comes To Us All’ is an exploration of the decay of all living things that we face collectively, day after day.

These words by legendary bassist/composer Charles Mingus are a touchstone for Little Big, the quartet led by pianist Aaron Parks. The band’s new recording, Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man, communicates with a clarity and simplicity that belies its ultimate depth. “I want to cast a spell,” explains Parks, “to lull you into a trance where you think you know where you’re going, and then take you somewhere unexpected, almost without realizing how you got there.”

This new music continues the band’s cultivation of a musical language that marries creative improvised music to more groove-centered music—electronica, indie-rock, hip-hop, and psychedelia—but without a trace of mannered “fusion” or a sense that the music is cobbled together from disparate styles. Rather, it feels seamlessly integrated, whole in and of itself.
Dreams of a Mechanical Man is Little Big’s second release on Ropeadope Records, recorded after more than two years of touring for Parks, guitarist Greg Tuohey, bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, and drummer Tommy Crane. One primary distinction of this new album, according to Parks, is that “today, the band operates as a single organism. The first record was about the tunes and the aesthetic. This album keeps that focus and also captures the chemistry we’ve developed on the road, the way this band feels as it makes music in the moment.”

Am 31. Oktober 2020 feierte die Band die Veröffentlichung ihres ersten Studioalbums seit 1999, The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny Demo - eine Neuaufnahme ihres 1986er High School Thrash Metal Demos -, mit einem massiven Livestream-Event, das neben einem Gastauftritt von Comedian Neil Hamburger auch Cameos von Musikern und Prominenten wie Eric Andre und Josh Homme (von Queens Of The Stone Age) enthielt.

Die Vinylvariante enthält ausschließlich das Audio und keinen Videocontent.

NYC-based producer Endemic Emerald is proud to
present the release of his 3rd album entitled “The
Virux”. Featuring such renowned emcees as
General Steele, Chris Rivers, Sadat X, Planet Asia,
Tragedy Khadafi, Ruste Juxx, Rim & Royal Flush
- to name but a few - the set is packed with high
class talent embedded in electrifying soundscapes.
Endemic, known for producing outstanding
compilation records Terminal illness 1 & 2 once
again does not disappoint with this offering, which
comprises a cohesive selection of epic, yet gritty
east coast bangers. Collaborating with a
combination of legendary and upcoming rappers
“The Virux” has that classic feel from beginning to
end, ensuring it to become an underground
favourite.

PRESSED ON MAROON-COLORED VINYL

The third instalment of “Speshal Blends” instrumental series includes
ten sought-after beats culled from Spesh’s own 6 Shots: Overkill EP,
Che Noir’s Juno album, 1000Words’ compilation, and the Army of
Trust II compilation. This collection further proves that on top of
being one of the nicest emcees on the mic, Spesh is also one of the
illest producers in the game. The cover continues the series’ trend of
tributing the cigar brands most popular for rolling blunts. This time
around Dutch Masters’ packaging gets flipped.

Originally released in 2008 on Type Recordings, Caesura by Helios aka Keith Kenniff returns in a new 2022 edition vinyl re-release, remastered by Taylor Deupree.

Keith Kenniff had been with Type from the very beginning, and in the fifth year of the label he offered his fifth gorgeous release. In those five years Keith's style had evolved constantly, with his drifting piano compositions taking the Goldmund label and the Helios sound moving out from underneath the clipped beat-heavy electronics of 'Unomia' and into a more unique place, even incorporating vocals on the 'Ayres' mini album. 'Caesura' however was his 'proper' follow-up to the acclaimed 'Eingya', and has seen Keith return to the instrumental sound he knows so well. In fact in many ways 'Caesura' is a more electronic work than its predecessors, blending layer upon layer of synthesizer and adding his assured drumming to come up with the perfect meeting of indie-pop and ambient music. The haunting cinematic element is still present of course, but these songs are more rounded and confident than any in Keith's career to that point.

From the delicate bliss of 'Hope Valley Hill' which opens up the album with gauzy nostalgia and, as the title promised, hope, through the chunky pop of 'Come With Nothings' it is clear that Keith's music is as arresting as it ever was. Taking cues from the lilting indie-electronics of Ulrich Schnauss and the unfussy ambience of Brian Eno, Keith manages to inject this with his knowledge as a composer. The epic harmonies of 'Backlight' for instance reveal a lightness of touch rarely heard in the genre with sweeping synthesized chords buzzing alongside Keith's signature guitar.

Accompanied by more gorgeous artwork from Matthew Woodson, 'Caesura' still is a glowing record for the winter months, and a glimmer of hope to keep the seasons at bay.

Food For Thought will be shipping in a random split between the photo and the illustrated cover art shown here.

The Shea Butter Queen is back! It’s been more than a year since her
last release, After 12, but Che has returned with a body of work that
she clearly spent her time on. She not only serves up a barrage of bars
on Food For Thought, but also produces 6 of 12 tracks. The other 6
cuts are handled by TrickyTrippz, JR Swiftz & Motif Alumni, Chup, and
a couple up-n-comers. Guests include 38 Spesh, Ransom, Rome
Streetz, Armani Caesar, 7xvethegenius, and more.

 Born into a musical family, as a child Charlie Hickey would obsessively
watch videos of his parents on tour in their old band Uma, learning all the
lyrics that he loved but didn’t understand. This introduction to music sowed a
seed and Hickey was soon writing songs of his own, playing on the guitars
that lay around him and singing about the little details of his school days. He
continued throughout his teen years, his songs becoming an outlet for the
growing anxieties that Hickey now understands to be Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder.
 This journey has led to ‘Nervous At Night’, Hickey’s debut album which is
released via Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records. Where 2021’s
‘Count The Stairs’ EP was an attempt to capture the rawness of his
performance, ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive within its production, Hickey
and producer Marshall Vore leaning into their perfectionist tendencies to find
the best version of each track. “He’s always interested in how you can push
things further but also reigns them in when necessary,” Hickey says. “I think
that’s the true hallmark of a good producer.”
 Hickey calls it a pop record but admits that sonically it moves in many
directions, an amalgamation of his love for the folk singers of yesteryear and
more contemporary peers, from Taylor Swift and The 1975 to the Californian
songwriter and producer Blake Mills. This shifting of styles - from the album’s
quiet heavy-hearted ballads to its more gleaming, hook-led tracks - mirrors
its overarching theme: life’s graceless passage between teenage years and
adulthood.
 And so we have ‘Planet With Water’, a plaintive love song that bristles with
nostalgia, Hickey singing of phone calls after school, of hearing a neighbour’s
TV through the wall. Elsewhere, ‘Mid Air’ holds a similar weight, Hickey
singing of “spinning in mid-air, waiting for somewhere to land, or some face
to show up” as the song flourishes around his voice, delicately accompanied
by guest turns from fellow LA musicians Harrison Whitford, Christian Lee
Hutson and Mason Stoops.
 ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive in its juxtapositions, chronicling the constant
push and pull of life, both its stagnancy and motion. Chiefly though, this is an
album about connection, how even through those struggles we rely on the
people around us to keep moving forwards. “I’d like to write songs that are
for everyone, that let people into my inner world while also hopefully making
people feel less alone on their own. I hope that these songs can be there for
somebody the way my favorite songs have been for me.”
 Collaborated with MUNA on track ‘Seeing Things’.
 2022 live shows include The Great Escape and SXSW, as well as shows in
London, NY and LA’s Troubadour. Recent US tour with Samia.
 LP available on opaque yellow vinyl.

 Born into a musical family, as a child Charlie Hickey would obsessively
watch videos of his parents on tour in their old band Uma, learning all the
lyrics that he loved but didn’t understand. This introduction to music sowed a
seed and Hickey was soon writing songs of his own, playing on the guitars
that lay around him and singing about the little details of his school days. He
continued throughout his teen years, his songs becoming an outlet for the
growing anxieties that Hickey now understands to be Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder.
 This journey has led to ‘Nervous At Night’, Hickey’s debut album which is
released via Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records. Where 2021’s
‘Count The Stairs’ EP was an attempt to capture the rawness of his
performance, ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive within its production, Hickey
and producer Marshall Vore leaning into their perfectionist tendencies to find
the best version of each track. “He’s always interested in how you can push
things further but also reigns them in when necessary,” Hickey says. “I think
that’s the true hallmark of a good producer.”
 Hickey calls it a pop record but admits that sonically it moves in many
directions, an amalgamation of his love for the folk singers of yesteryear and
more contemporary peers, from Taylor Swift and The 1975 to the Californian
songwriter and producer Blake Mills. This shifting of styles - from the album’s
quiet heavy-hearted ballads to its more gleaming, hook-led tracks - mirrors
its overarching theme: life’s graceless passage between teenage years and
adulthood.
 And so we have ‘Planet With Water’, a plaintive love song that bristles with
nostalgia, Hickey singing of phone calls after school, of hearing a neighbour’s
TV through the wall. Elsewhere, ‘Mid Air’ holds a similar weight, Hickey
singing of “spinning in mid-air, waiting for somewhere to land, or some face
to show up” as the song flourishes around his voice, delicately accompanied
by guest turns from fellow LA musicians Harrison Whitford, Christian Lee
Hutson and Mason Stoops.
 ‘Nervous At Night’ comes alive in its juxtapositions, chronicling the constant
push and pull of life, both its stagnancy and motion. Chiefly though, this is an
album about connection, how even through those struggles we rely on the
people around us to keep moving forwards. “I’d like to write songs that are
for everyone, that let people into my inner world while also hopefully making
people feel less alone on their own. I hope that these songs can be there for
somebody the way my favorite songs have been for me.”
 Collaborated with MUNA on track ‘Seeing Things’.
 2022 live shows include The Great Escape and SXSW, as well as shows in
London, NY and LA’s Troubadour. Recent US tour with Samia.
 LP available on opaque yellow vinyl.

 With their duo debut, Dean Spunt and John Wiese invite you to experience
the frenzy of percussive space and discreet sound found inside ‘The Echoing
Shell’.
 This is the first official collaboration between the two veteran music-makers,
though their connection goes back to 1999. As John recalls, “Dean was in a
high school arts program at CalArts. A friend and I were recording the first
Sissy Spacek demo in the design studios there, and taking a tape to my car
over and over again to check the mix. Dean was walking through the parking
lot with a Locust shirt on, we said hello, and he immediately got into a car
with two strangers to ‘listen to a tape’.”
 The tape-listening ended well, apparently. Dean and John became friends
and fellow travellers in LA circles and beyond: in 2005, John did a remix for
Dean’s first band, Wives; in 2007, Dean played percussion with Sissy
Spacek’s 13-Tet Los Angeles; John toured with No Age several times and
collaborated live with them in 2010.
 Under the Sissy Spacek name as well as his own, John’s recordings for his
own Helicopter label and many others kicked things off for him around the
end of the century; since then, he’s been constantly engaged in solos and
collaborations on record, performances, and installations around the world.
 In addition to Dean’s ever-growing discography with No Age, he curates his
own label, Post Present Medium. In 2018, Radical Documents released
Dean’s solo debut ‘EE Head’, which explored concrète and experimental
techniques in a four-part, album length piece.
 ‘The Echoing Shell’ is born of Dean and John’s shared understanding, using
John’s process common to Sissy Spacek: elaborate sound-collage works
using source material originating from punk, hardcore and improvised music.
A series of impositions, tape manipulation and edits recompose the material,
cracking open the crust of the source, freeing its implied guts to steam forth
in gushes of extreme noise. On ‘The Echoing Shell’, this is as often noise as
it is extreme intimacy, seeming at times to be sourced from within Dean’s
drumkit, at other times appearing to emanate from the capsules of
microphones and the circuits of the signal path itself.
 One may read these collaged sounds as abstraction, but there is a unique
language conveyed in their assembly, forming something like word-shapes
and meaning. And intention: the two side-long pieces, comprised of many
short sections, form a linear whole, creating alternately ripping and
discriminating music - and meaning - in the process.
 ‘The Echoing Shell’ is a fantastic conception in contemporary musique
concrète, combining incendiary post-rock power, dry humour and astonishing
depth of field. Whether projecting the sound through headphones, ear buds,
bookshelf speakers or your own personal amp stack, crank up ‘The Echoing
Shell’.

 With their new album, If I Never Know You Like This Again, SOAK has
finally shaken the hangover of their starry debut ‘Before We Forgot How
To Dream’, and the pressures that came with it, hiding in the wings of
their ambitious follow up album, ‘Grim Town’.
 Having come up through BBC Introducing at the tender age of 15, before
signing to Rough Trade Records, as well as winning the RTE Choice
Music Prize and The Northern Irish Music Prize, in addition to being the
youngest ever Mercury Prize nominee, SOAK has again and again been
described as “the voice of a generation.”
 Showing, from a young age, an intensely artistic awareness of the poetry
of memory, Bridie Monds-Watson, aka SOAK, would incessantly
photograph and video everything, documenting and organising the
material so it was always there for them to revisit. “I always want to
remember exactly how I felt at a certain moment.” Now, at 25, SOAK’s
third album, ‘If I Never Know You Like This Again', is naturally made up
of what Bridie intimately calls ‘song-memories’.
 Working closely with Tommy McLaughlin (Villagers), with whom Bridie
has been collaborating with since the age of 15, and armed with
influences from Pavement to Radiohead to Broken Social Scene, they
wrote most of the album together before recording it with the rest of the
band in Attica Studios, Donegal.
 Throughout the album SOAK pushes and pulls at melodies, but never
milks their brilliance. Bridie masterfully glides their vocal melody slightly
off-kilter above excitable compressed high hats and flourishing guitar
lines. With the new direction of a grungier, more lo-fi production, the
swooning guitars are given a contemporary pop edge, reflected in the
rich and robust musicality of songs like ‘Bleach’, ‘Last July’ and ‘Pretzel’.
 There’s a constant pulsating beat at the album’s centre, propelling it
towards a kind of dewy happiness, like the end credits of a 90s comingof-age film. Bridie’s lyrics move through the songs almost as effortlessly
and they sing them, and the songs when read, read like poetry.
 With this album Bridie is, as the title suggests, freezing time in the
pursuit of truth: capturing their life into existence. In the world of ‘If I
Never Know You Like This Again’, a life is lived only because it's
remembered.

Soul Jazz Records are releasing this 20th anniversary edition of their classic Studio One Rockers on unique Record Store Day EXCLUSIVE coloured vinyl + download code. This new edition is a one-off pressing exclusively for Record Store Day Owned and founded by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, Studio One's output serves as a comprehensive guide to the history of Reggae music.

The music on Studio One Rockers covers all areas of Reggae such as Ska, Rocksteady, Roots and Dancehall, all areas in which Studio One led the field and has become the essential introduction to reggae fans throughout the world.


Included in this compilation are classic Ska tracks ("Phoenix City"), Rocksteady ("Feel Like Jumping"), Roots music ("Truth and Rights"), Dancehall (Freddy McGregor, Michigan and Smiley) and many more. Featured here are many of the classic tracks from Studio One. From Dawn Penn's legendary "No, No, No" to classics such as Horace Andy's "Skylarking" and Marcia Griffith's "Feel Like Jumping".

"Compilation of the year. 100% Essential” Time Out "Compilation of the year. A compilation of unbelievable quality. Awesome” DJ "A who's who of Jamaican music” The Times "An essential slice of musical history" Wire "The most credible compilation of reggae you can buy” - The Guardian.

 Once again, accordionist Vincent Peirani
reshuffles the cards. As a good jazz musician, he
likes to venture into unexplored territories. As a
good music fan and a very good musician in
general, he is curious, enthusiastic, and eager to
make new discoveries and find new things to listen
to or play. ‘Jokers’, his first album in trio, goes
even further, and elsewhere.
 Vincent chose to turn to the jazz trio for the first
time, a formula with such a long history that it is
almost sacred, and certainly intimidating. But
typically, he used that framework only to escape
from it. His two accomplices, Federico Casagrande
on guitar and Ziv Ravitz on drums and keyboards,
both have a wealth of experience and skills, an
interest in rock and electronic music, and a taste
for musical hybridity.
 Now available on vinyl with digital download code.

If you’re looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further than
‘Weird Nightmare’. The debut album from METZ guitarist and vocalist Alex
Edkins contains all of his main band’s bite with an unexpected, yet totally
satisfying, sweetness. Imagine The Amps covering Big Star, or the gloriously
hissy miniature epics of classic-era Guided by Voices combined with the
bombast of ‘Copper Blue’- era Sugar - just tons of red-line distortion cut with the
type of tunecraft that thrills the moment it hits your ears.
 These ten songs showcase a new side of Edkins’ already-established
songwriting, but even though the bulk of ‘Weird Nightmare’ was recorded during
the COVID-19 pandemic, some of its tunes date back to 2013 in demo form.
“Hooks and melody have always been a big part of my writing, but they really
became the main focus this time” he explains. “It was about doing what felt
natural.”
 To be clear: Weird Nightmare is not a ‘pandemic album’, but an album - some of
which had been gestating for quite a while - that just so happened to be recorded
during the pandemic. “I had always planned on finishing these songs, but being
unable to tour with METZ, and forced to lock down, really gave me a push.” After
days spent homeschooling his son, Edkins would drive to the METZ rehearsal
room and tinker deep into the night on these songs’ deceptively simple structures
and rich, static-laden textures. “It was a godsend for me,” he states about the
creative process. “The hours would disappear and I would get lost in the music
and record. It was a beautiful escape.”
 ‘Weird Nightmare’ is, in its own way, a study in extremes: Edkins’ melodic
instincts and penchant for dissonance are both turned up to the max throughout,
the latter reflecting not only the barn-burning tendencies of METZ, but Alex’s own
sonic predilections. “It doesn’t sound right to my ears until it’s pushed over the
edge.” He also cites other artists who are masterful at mixing the sublime and the
punishing - Kim Deal and Scout Niblett among them - as influences on his own
songwriting. “My favorite songs are the simple ones,” he explains. “I’ve never
been attracted to virtuosity or technicality. Certain songs have the power to lift
your spirits like nothing else can. I wanted to create that type of song.”
 A few guests pitch in on Weird Nightmare: Canadian alt-pop genius Chad
VanGaalen adds his unmistakable touch to the ever-escalating ‘Oh No’, while
Alicia Bognanno of Bully lends her distinctive pipes to the thrashing ‘Wrecked’, a
collaboration that effectively saved the song. “I almost didn’t put it on the album
because I thought it was missing something,” Edkins explains. “I sent it to Alicia
and she lifted it way up.”
 And taking risks and reaching out of Edkins’ comfort zone was the name of the
game when it came to making ‘Weird Nightmare’. “I found myself doing new
things I didn’t have the guts to do before, recording everything by myself and
trusting all of my musical instincts,” he states. “I think when music manifests
quickly, a certain amount of honesty automatically comes along with it. When it is
a purely instinctual creation, there is no opportunity to obscure the truth.”
 Loser Edition LP pressed on Coke Bottle Green transparent vinyl.

If you’re looking for a raw, sugary blast of distorted pop, look no further than
‘Weird Nightmare’. The debut album from METZ guitarist and vocalist Alex
Edkins contains all of his main band’s bite with an unexpected, yet totally
satisfying, sweetness. Imagine The Amps covering Big Star, or the gloriously
hissy miniature epics of classic-era Guided by Voices combined with the
bombast of ‘Copper Blue’- era Sugar - just tons of red-line distortion cut with the
type of tunecraft that thrills the moment it hits your ears.
 These ten songs showcase a new side of Edkins’ already-established
songwriting, but even though the bulk of ‘Weird Nightmare’ was recorded during
the COVID-19 pandemic, some of its tunes date back to 2013 in demo form.
“Hooks and melody have always been a big part of my writing, but they really
became the main focus this time” he explains. “It was about doing what felt
natural.”
 To be clear: Weird Nightmare is not a ‘pandemic album’, but an album - some of
which had been gestating for quite a while - that just so happened to be recorded
during the pandemic. “I had always planned on finishing these songs, but being
unable to tour with METZ, and forced to lock down, really gave me a push.” After
days spent homeschooling his son, Edkins would drive to the METZ rehearsal
room and tinker deep into the night on these songs’ deceptively simple structures
and rich, static-laden textures. “It was a godsend for me,” he states about the
creative process. “The hours would disappear and I would get lost in the music
and record. It was a beautiful escape.”
 ‘Weird Nightmare’ is, in its own way, a study in extremes: Edkins’ melodic
instincts and penchant for dissonance are both turned up to the max throughout,
the latter reflecting not only the barn-burning tendencies of METZ, but Alex’s own
sonic predilections. “It doesn’t sound right to my ears until it’s pushed over the
edge.” He also cites other artists who are masterful at mixing the sublime and the
punishing - Kim Deal and Scout Niblett among them - as influences on his own
songwriting. “My favorite songs are the simple ones,” he explains. “I’ve never
been attracted to virtuosity or technicality. Certain songs have the power to lift
your spirits like nothing else can. I wanted to create that type of song.”
 A few guests pitch in on Weird Nightmare: Canadian alt-pop genius Chad
VanGaalen adds his unmistakable touch to the ever-escalating ‘Oh No’, while
Alicia Bognanno of Bully lends her distinctive pipes to the thrashing ‘Wrecked’, a
collaboration that effectively saved the song. “I almost didn’t put it on the album
because I thought it was missing something,” Edkins explains. “I sent it to Alicia
and she lifted it way up.”
 And taking risks and reaching out of Edkins’ comfort zone was the name of the
game when it came to making ‘Weird Nightmare’. “I found myself doing new
things I didn’t have the guts to do before, recording everything by myself and
trusting all of my musical instincts,” he states. “I think when music manifests
quickly, a certain amount of honesty automatically comes along with it. When it is
a purely instinctual creation, there is no opportunity to obscure the truth.”
 Loser Edition LP pressed on Coke Bottle Green transparent vinyl.

Oops, Four Flies did it again! Like other rare Italian gems, Berto Pisano's La Novizia was long thought lost before the FF team rescued, restored and remastered it from the original tapes. And wow, it's just one of the best things, if not the best thing, about the 1975 film it was written for – an erotic comedy with melodramatic overtones directed by Pisano's long-time collaborator Giuliano Biagetti (they previously worked together on Interrabang and La Svergognata) and starring a young and mesmerizing Gloria Guida.

The film's low budget meant that Pisano had to make a virtue out of necessity. Rather than using a big orchestra and strings (as is well known, he was a brilliant conductor and string arranger), he relied on a smaller ensemble – almost a chamber ensemble, but with a jazz-like rhythm section – to create sensual late-night soundscapes that exude a downtempo ambience. In a nutshell: smooth, warm, velvety music. The epitome of the lounge sound.

At times, whispered, sexy vocals by (the then ubiquitous) Edda Dell'Orso float dreamily over brushed drums, bass, guitars and electric pianos. At others, we find Italian library heavyweights like Alessandro Alessandroni (whose unmistakable whistle can be heard in "Canto Notturno") and even psychedelic rock influences, as in the acid distorted guitars, furious drums and crazy synths of "Free Dimension". At yet other times, we're taken into more easy-listening territory – "Fiore Rosso", for instance, offers a wonderfully cinematic example of Mediterranean, rather than Brazilian, bossa nova (did they ever thought of using a spinet in Brazil??).

The secret to the charm of La Novizia is that it encapsulates the Italian erotic sound of the 70s in all of its nuances, from the morbid, to the prudish, to the naïve. Because yes, this is a record of nuance and musicianship. And while the themes are in themselves simple, the fantastic quality of the writing, arrangement and production is a testament to Berto Pisano's superb talent, style and professionalism.

Finally back to life after decades of obscurity, La Novizia is a thing of beauty – which, as a pretty bright fellow once said, is a joy forever. Don't miss out on joy.

Comes on vinyl, CD and Digi with original artwork by Eric Adrian Lee and exclusive liner notes by the Pisano family. All tracks are previously unreleased in any format.

This is the second 12" EP featuring reinterpretations of tracks taken from the brilliant Nicola Conte & Gianluca Petrella's jazz dance album "People Need People" released in 2021. The song "Inner Light" gets here a further interpretation by the great Anthony Nicholson, one of the most respected producers and key characters in the tribal / afrocentric house scene, while DJ Spinna has put his artistry on "New World Shuffle" for an uplifting result: Bridgette Amofah's original vocals shine over a sunny house groove full of keys and moog lushy layers, in a distinctive 'Spinna feel'. Coming next: new versions of "People Need People" songs made by Tall Black Guy, Andrés and Fred P.! Stay tuned!!!

Venom is the 2018 superhero film which features the Marvel Comics characters Eddie Brock and Venom. It’s the first film in Sony’s Spider- Man Universe (SSU) and is directed by Ruben Fleisch. Venom follows the story of failed reporter Brock (Tom Hardy) who is bonded to an alien entity, giving him superpowers as long as they share the same body. The being takes a liking to Earth and decides to protect it. The film was a box-office success and in 2021, the sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage was released.

Its score is composed by Ludwig Göransson, who worked before with Ruben Fleisch on the successful Black Panther, for which he received the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media and the Academy Award for Best Original Score. The Swedish composer has also scored films such as Tenet and the Rocky franchise entries Creed and Creed II. As a record producer, he has received an equal amount of acclaim, having produced for Adele, Chance The Rapper, Travis Scott and Childish Gambino, including Gambino’s iconic hit “This Is America”.

Venom is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on “Black Clouds” coloured (crystal clear & black marbled) vinyl. The album is housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve with a silver foil finish, includes a printed innersleeve and an exclusive fridge magnet.

Mit spannenden, persönlichen Aufnahmen und einem ausführlichen Blick hinter die Kulissen begleitet ”The Police: Around The World” die Band dabei, wie sie neues Territorium erkundet und lässt uns an den Anfängen ihres kometenhaften Aufstiegs teilhaben: 1979 und 1980 begab die Gruppe sich auf ihre allererste Welttournee, welche sie durch sechs Kontinente führte. Zwischen den Auftritten bietet der Film der DVD/Blu-ray Formate einen heiteren Blick auf die Band auf ihrer Reise um die Welt und ihre Besuche bei lokalen Sehenswürdigkeiten. ”Around The World” wird mit restauriertem Bild und remastertem Ton
präsentiert und enthält vollständige Auftritte von 4 Songs, die in der Dokumentation vorkommen.

Mit diesem Album kombinieren sich Liveaufnahmen und ganz persönlichen Eindrücke von Sting, Andy Summers und Stewart Copeland in Japan, Hong Kong, Australien, Indien, Ägypten, Griechenland, Frankreich, Südamerika und in den Vereinigten Staaten; und kreieren so das ultimative „The Police“-Erlebnis.

Pass Out of Existence is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Chimaira, released on October 2, 2001. According to vocalist Mark Hunter, as of 2003, the band has sold 44,000 copies of the album in the United States alone. Pass Out of Existence features an altogether different sound when compared to the band's later albums, leaning more towards nu metal rather than the groove metal style featured in later material. Its heavy use of electronics has also been noted.

Released in 1961, My Favorite Things made John Coltrane a star with box-office pulling power previously preserved for the likes of Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, the MJQ, and Miles Davis. The dazzling quartet treatment of the Richard Rodgers hit song, features Coltrane on soprano saxophone for the first time on record, exercised a hypnotic effect on all sorts of music lovers and trend-spotters. The title track was a hit single, and the album became a major commercial success. In 1998, the album received the Grammy Hall of Fame award. It attained gold record status in 2018, having sold 500,000 copies. The mono version of this album, believed lost, was recently found, and is included in this deluxe package, as well as the stereo version, both mastered from the original tapes.

The packaging includes liner notes by award-winning writer Ben Ratliff, as well as photos and Atlantic Records ephemera.

“Modern Primitive” is the new album by SEPTICFLESH who present a stunning combination of symphonic and cinematic music with aggressive yet catchy Death Metal. Picking up on the group’s sonic evolution in the past decades, “Modern Primitive” proves to be more emotional, epic and heavy than ever.

SEPTICFLESH was formed as “Septic Flesh” in Greece in the early '90s by Spyridon Antoniou (a.k.a. Seth Siro Anton): vocals/bass, Christos Antoniou: guitar and Sotirios Vagenas (a.k.a. Sotiris Anunnaki V.): guitar/ clean vocals. A debut Ep was released in 1991, entitled "Temple of The Lost Race". Their first full-length album "Mystic Places of Dawn" was released in 1994, followed by "EΣΟΠΤΡΟΝ" that was released in 1995. With the release of "Ophidian Wheel" in 1997, a female soprano vocalist (Natalie Rassoulis) was introduced, as the band moved towards a more symphonic style. "A Fallen Temple" (1998) continued in the same musical direction. In 1999, "Revolution DNA" was released, followed by “Sumerian Daemons” in 2003, both albums produced by Fredrik Nordström (At The Gates, Opeth, In Flames). Although the band's popularity was growing, the band members decided to disband, in order to focus on other personal projects and goals. But that was not the end of the story... After a reunion, the band returned with the album "Communion" in 2008, again with Fredrik Nordström at the helm of production. From that point onwards, the symphonic element (composed by Christos Antoniou, that has a Master Degree in Concert Music) was fully implemented in the structure of the songs, with the collaboration of Filmharmonic Orchestra of Prague. “The Great Mass” (2011) followed with Peter Tägtgren (Hypocrisy, Pain) producing, "Titan" (2014) with Logan Mader (ex-Machine Head) as producer and "Codex Omega" (2017) which started the group’s collaboration with Jens Bogren that continues to the very day. In 2020, the recording of the epic and fully orchestrated Live in Mexico entitled "Infernus Sinfonica MMXIX", was released on CD/LP/DVD/Blu-Ray.

Now, SEPTICFLESH has joined forces with Nuclear Blast Records and initiates the next phase in the band’s history, with a new album to be released in May 2022. Once again Jens Bogren is responsible for the bombastic mix and sound whereas Seth Siro Anton - who is also in charge for the visual aesthetics of the band and worked for artists like Nile, Paradise Lost or Moonspell - has crafted a really intense cover and over-the-top artwork for this release. The new songs impress with many layers, gloomy and empowering atmosphere while being heavy and memorable. Besides the continuous collaboration with the Filmharmonic Orchestra of Prague, the band used a full adult choir, a full children choir and a variety of ethnic instruments.

There is a way a voice can cut through the fascia of reality, cleaving through habit into the raw nerve of experience. Nika Roza Danilova, the singer, songwriter, and producer who since 2009 has released music as Zola Jesus, wields a voice that does that. When you hear it, it is like you are being summoned to a place that’s already wrapped inside you but obscured from conscious experience. This place has been buried because it tends to hold pain, but it’s also a gift, because once it’s opened, once you’re inside of it, it can show you the truth. Zola Jesus’s new album, Arkhon, finds new ways of loosing this submerged, stalled pain.

There is a way a voice can cut through the fascia of reality, cleaving through habit into the raw nerve of experience. Nika Roza Danilova, the singer, songwriter, and producer who since 2009 has released music as Zola Jesus, wields a voice that does that. When you hear it, it is like you are being summoned to a place that’s already wrapped inside you but obscured from conscious experience. This place has been buried because it tends to hold pain, but it’s also a gift, because once it’s opened, once you’re inside of it, it can show you the truth. Zola Jesus’s new album, Arkhon, finds new ways of loosing this submerged, stalled pain.

Nachpressung des Albums von 2015. Obwohl er vielleicht nicht so bekannt ist, hat sich die sinnträchtige, deutlich amerikanische Musik von Kenniff zu einem allgegenwärtigen Sound gemausert, der im Radio, in Filmen, im Fernsehen und in Werbung von Apple, Facebook, Google und anderen auftaucht. Aufgenommen über drei Jahre hinweg fungieren die Songs auf seinem neuen Album ,Sometimes" wie ein Tagebuch, das die kurzen Momente am Tag dokumentiert, in denen Kenniff sich für Trost und unendliche kreative Möglichkeiten dem Klavier zuwandte. Kenniff schrieb und nahm alles auf dem Album selbst auf, mit der Ausnahme von ,A Word I Give", das eine Kollaboration mit dem japanischen Pianisten Ryuichi Sakamoto ist, der die Musik von GOLDMUND einst als ,so, so, so wunderschön" beschrieb. In einem Interview mit NPR diskutierte Keith Kenniff seine Vorliebe für Musik aus der Zeit des Bürgerkriegs und ihre Möglichkeit, ,in nur wenigen Noten solche Geschichten" zu erzählen. Auch die Improvisationen auf ,Sometimes" schaffen es, trotz ihrer technischen und kompositionellen Einfachheit, tiefgründig zu sein. Subtile Details und Dynamiken drücken das aus, was sonst nicht zu artikulieren wäre. ENG Though he may not be a household name, Kenniff's evocative, distinctly American music has become quietly ubiquitous in the past few years, often appearing on NPR, in films, on TV, and in ads for Apple, Facebook, and Google among others. Recorded over the course of three years, the material on his new album Sometimes functions as a journal, documenting brief moments in Kenniff's day when he could turn to the piano as a source of solace and unending creative possibilities. Kenniff wrote and recorded everything on the album with the exception of the track "A Word I Give", which is a collaboration with preeminent Japanese pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto, who once described Goldmund's music as "...so, so, so beautiful." In an interview with NPR's Weekend Edition Keith Kenniff discussed his appreciation of Civil War era music, and it's ability to covey "...so much story in so few notes." Similarly, these improvisations manage to be richly evocative despite their technical and compositional simplicity, using subtle details and dynamics to express what might otherwise be inexpressible.

Multi-Grammy nominated singer, Seth MacFarlane, announces his 7th studio album, Blue Skies. The 14-track collection of swinging tunes showcases acclaimed arranger and conductor Andrew Cottee’s deft take on an uptempo album full of modern big band jazz orchestrations. The first track off the upbeat set is the classic jazz standard, “No Moon At All.” You can listen to the song and pre-order the album here. You can watch the accompanying lyric video here. Recorded at the celebrated Abbey Road studios, Blue Skies features an all-star group of musicians enlisted by MacFarlane including Chuck Berghofer (Bass), Peter Erskine (Drums), Larry Koonse (Guitar), Dan Higgins (Alto Sax), and Tom Ranier (piano). Together, with longtime friend, collaborator, and producer, Joel McNeely, and superb engineer, Rich Breen, the album covers compositions by musical writing luminaries that include Irving Berlin, Sammy Cahn, Edward Heyman and Frank Loesser.

Jimi Tenor war schon immer so etwas wie ein Renaissance man. Bereits als er seine Heimat Finnland zu Beginn der 1990er Jahre verließ, um zunächst nach New York zu gehen und später quer durch Europa zu ziehen, entdeckte er schnell das, was er als sein Ikigai bezeichnet, seine große Freude im Leben: Musik in DIY-Manier aufzunehmen und zuhause mit einfachen Mitteln zu produzieren, spontan und intuitiv. Daran hat Tenor über die inzwischen mehr als 30 Jahre seiner musikalischen Karriere hinweg stets festgehalten, ganz egal ob auf Solopfaden seiner frühen elektronischen Alben in den 90er Jahren oder später in den unterschiedlichsten Besetzungen und Kollaboration (u.a. Tony Allen, Kabu Kabu oder Abdissa Assefa). "Multiversum" ist nun sein drittes Album beim Hamburger Label Bureau B. Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Jimi Tenor und Bureau B begann mit der Veröffentlichung der Werkschau "NY, Hel, Barca" im Jahr 2020 und setzte sich im Frühjahr 2021 mit Herausgabe der Raritäten-Sammlung "Deep Sound Learning" fort. Während Tenor in den vergangenen 20 Jahren vor allem Jazz und Afrobeat Platten aufnahm, kehrte er auf der Bühne weiterhin oft zu seinen minimalistischen Wurzeln zurück. Begeistert von dieser Space Musik, die Jimi Tenor nur mit Synthesizer, Flöte und Saxophon ausgestattet während seiner Solo Auftritte erschafft, lud Bureau B ihn ein, endlich auch eine Platte mit diesem einfachen, aber erstaunlich wirkungsvollen Setup aufzunehmen…

Jimi Tenor war schon immer so etwas wie ein Renaissance man. Bereits als er seine Heimat Finnland zu Beginn der 1990er Jahre verließ, um zunächst nach New York zu gehen und später quer durch Europa zu ziehen, entdeckte er schnell das, was er als sein Ikigai bezeichnet, seine große Freude im Leben: Musik in DIY-Manier aufzunehmen und zuhause mit einfachen Mitteln zu produzieren, spontan und intuitiv. Daran hat Tenor über die inzwischen mehr als 30 Jahre seiner musikalischen Karriere hinweg stets festgehalten, ganz egal ob auf Solopfaden seiner frühen elektronischen Alben in den 90er Jahren oder später in den unterschiedlichsten Besetzungen und Kollaboration (u.a. Tony Allen, Kabu Kabu oder Abdissa Assefa). "Multiversum" ist nun sein drittes Album beim Hamburger Label Bureau B. Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Jimi Tenor und Bureau B begann mit der Veröffentlichung der Werkschau "NY, Hel, Barca" im Jahr 2020 und setzte sich im Frühjahr 2021 mit Herausgabe der Raritäten-Sammlung "Deep Sound Learning" fort. Während Tenor in den vergangenen 20 Jahren vor allem Jazz und Afrobeat Platten aufnahm, kehrte er auf der Bühne weiterhin oft zu seinen minimalistischen Wurzeln zurück. Begeistert von dieser Space Musik, die Jimi Tenor nur mit Synthesizer, Flöte und Saxophon ausgestattet während seiner Solo Auftritte erschafft, lud Bureau B ihn ein, endlich auch eine Platte mit diesem einfachen, aber erstaunlich wirkungsvollen Setup aufzunehmen…

Gongs have played an integral role in the mythogeography of Asia. This is not music that aligns with national borders or ideas of homogenous populations, let alone racial stereotypes and exotic clichés. What connects all of these tracks is a simultaneous feeling of entrancement and social cohesion. Communal and collaborative, its form is hypnotically repetitious, melodies and rhythms spread out among the players using the technique of hocketing in which a flowing line is distributed among all the musicians. The effect is mesmerising, immediately intoxicating to anybody who loves Chicago footwork, free improvisation, Sun Ra or young hip hop producer Jetsonmade. The music is simple yet mysterious and enveloping, a sound world in which to disappear. A theory exists but this is not explained. - David Toop (extracts from the liner notes)

This project, Massif and Archipelago, is a field recording project initiated by Japanese sound artist Yasuhiro Morinaga, documenting traditional gong music by different Southeast Asian ethnic groups. The project aimed to examine the impact of the natural and social environment on the gong music culture of Southeast Asia. During the project, he visited over 50 different ethnic groups and made hundreds of recordings. This album presents a selection of the unique gong music from different ethnic minorities. The selected music has been divided into two broad sections: one focussing on the music from the Massif, i.e. mainland Southeast Asia (Central Highland of Vietnam and Northeast Cambodia), the other on music from the Archipelago, maritime Southeast Asia (the Luzon Islands of the Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi, and the Flores Islands of Indonesia).

Consequence and more. Emma Ruth Rundle's second instalment in her Electric Guitar series, EG2: Dowsing Voice, is almost like the soundtrack to a film that hasn't been made. The mostly instrumental record follows her on a trip to the Welsh coast and down a magical well into the waters of nature, myth and the Old Golds - by way of her improvised music. The 40 plus minute album was sewn together from recordings channeled during her month-long solo journey in the early days of 2020 and completed before 2021's critically lauded album Engine of Hell was even written. Unlike Electric Guitar One, EG2: Dowsing Voice features vocal improvisation, unconventional singing and extended vocal techniques free from lyrics - like the throat singing on "In the Cave_" which is meant to be the voices of crones gathering in a rhythmic and physical ritual. Rundle was led to these voices by unseen forces along with the immense impact of the Welsh water: ocean, rivers springs and wells that gave the album its extended title Dowsing Voice. While there is some focus on vocal and story here, her textural and even bombastic guitar improvisations are featured throughout the album. For Rundle, the Electric Guitar series will always be about inspired, unplanned moments like this at its core.

Born in Detroit, living in Brooklyn and with releases out already on Balkan, The Bunker New York and even legendary house label Nervous, Lauren Flax now makes her Super Rhythm Trax debut with 4 fresh tracks to get you tweaking !!

The tracks are full of attitude with razor sharp percussion, wet 303s and plenty of blips and bloops for the Bleep heads.

It’s All Punk Dub………

There were two trains leaving the musical station back in the late seventies. One was punk rock the other was reggae. I had a foot in both, which we called The Punky Reggae Party.

When I cut tracks for the `It’s All Punk Rock’ album, released in October 2021, I always cut a dub / version of the track. Some came out as the flip side of the 7’’ singles in true reggae style and some were worked on more and changed. Some I dropped different lyrics on top of the backing track simply because it seemed to work. All had the bass /drums pushed up,
lyrics dropped in /out when needed. I always saw these as a different way of listening to the tracks and these seem to work together as an album release.

Hope you enjoy the ride…

1976 the writings on the wall
Police and Thieves, Riots at the Carnival
Dreadlocks In Moonlight, Anarchy In The UK
New Rose, M.P.L.A.

1977 the Silver Jubilee
Two Sevens Clash, In The City
The red, white & blue meets the red, green & gold
It’s a punky reggae party, so I’m told

1978 Ah Strictly Roots
Gabicci tops and bondage suits
Nah pop no style in me whistle and flute
Creepers, Clarkes & DM boots

1979 this is No Fun, Rasta No Pick Pocket
Got me copy of Hong Kong Garden
looks like we a buying what we are sold
Cos the punks & teds are fighting in the King’s Road

Punk Rock meets version International herb
Pass the ready rub
You’ve had It’s All Punk Rock
Now It’s All Punk Dub …..

Limited Edition 500 copies

Years in the making – ‘Hillbillies In Hell’ (13) presents 16 timeless tribulations - a Lovecraftian clutch of Ancient Terrors, Sinful Seductions, Grinding Poverty, Debilitating Disfigurement, Hell's Eternal Maze of Hardships and God's Blazing Light of Redemption.

A misty shroud of marginal 45s - some of these sides are impossibly rare and are reissued here for the very first time. All for your cautionary listening pleasure.

SEE Little Richard Miller witness THE FIRE CAME DOWN! HEAR Dee Mullins declare I AM THE GRASS! ATTEST to Eddie Noack's brutal final fate in BARBARA JOY!

The Carter Family - 2001 (Ballad To The Future), Henson Cargill - Skip A Rope, Porter Wagoner - Julie, Eddie Noack - Barbara Joy, Waylon Jennings - The Road, Sammi Smith - Birmingham Mistake, Norma Jean - One's On The Way, Wendy Bagwell And The Sunliters - This Train, Dee Mullins - I Am The Grass, Hank Thompson And The Brazos Valley Boys - I Cast A Lonesome Shadow, Porter Wagoner - Lonely Comin' Down, Henson Cargill - The Pain Will Go Away, The Carter Family - Poison Red Berries, Bobby Bare - When I've Learned, Roger Miller - I Know Who It Is (And I'm Gonna Tell On Him), Little Richard Miller - The Fire Came Down

ITALIAN LIBRARY MUSIC MASTERPIECE!

“L’uomo dagli occhiali a specchio” is a 1975 2-part thriller film directed for Rai Television by Mariano Foglietti, former collaborator of Dario Argento in “Quattro mosche di velluto grigio” (Four flies on grey velvet).

The music composed by Sandro Brugnolini for the occasion are exceptional, and in the 14 tracks of the soundtrack it is possible to find all the typical ingredients of a ’70s score: a sublime fusion of rock, pop, jazz, classical and symphonic music, with urban funk sparkles typical of the blaxploitation genre. Brugnolini's taste and skill in dealing with these different elements are still astounding today, starting from the four versions of the main theme “La notte muore” included in this record.

Originally released on Vroommm Records label by Edizioni Leonardi in an LP that is today extremely rare and precious, this soundtrack is exclusively repressed by Redi Edizioni on clear transparent vinyl for Record Store Day 2022. Not to be missed!

This LP pressing is on Translucent Orange.
Recorded At Inner Ear Studios
Produced By Ian MacKaye
Daniel Higgs vocals Asa Osborne guitar John Chriest bassMitchell Feldstein drums

Out of print for almost 30 years. Includes rare never-before-seen vacation photos by Anna Lee Van Cleef who shot the original album cover. 1987's High Priest was the first full length solo record for legendary frontman Alex Chilton (Big Star/ Box Tops) since 1979's ground shaking Like Flies on Sherbert. It shows Chilton in full control of his faculties as both a musician and a musicologist. He leads a solid band of Memphis/ New Orleans studio heavyweights through 4 newly penned originals and a well curated list of covers. What it lacks in polish, it more than makes up in charm, verve and just plain ol’ soul. This could be what rock’n’roll is all about.” Trouser Press

Single includes download. “Virginia Wing are not from the sedate school of dream-pop escapism…a hazy subversion of the traditional monochrome evocations of post-punk, a photo negative of an established form.” - The Quietus // “South London three-piece ally buzz and drone with sweetness and light” Guardian – New Band Of The Week // "A piece of noir-pop majesty that consistently pushes its own boundaries and frequently shatters the listeners’ sense of expectation" Loud and Quiet // "They possess a rare ability to dive deep beneath the skin.. a ghostly mix that flirts hard and fast with the avant garde while retaining a sly pop lustre" Mojo 4* // Following the 2015 release of their acclaimed debut album ‘Measures Of Joy’ on Fire Records, Camberwell based outfit Virginia Wing return with a striking new single. ‘Rhonda’, released for Record Store Day on 12” vinyl with a disco cut sleeve featuring artwork from longtime collaborator Florian Brooks. Recorded at Hackney-based Holy Mountain Studios with Misha Hering, ‘Rhonda’ sees the band expand the deep and varied sonic palette displayed on their debut ‘Measures Of Joy’. Featuring guest musician Koichi Yamanoha of Grimm Grimm, the single unfolds slowly as meditative incantations give way to a sprawling piece of experimental pop for the dance floor. The ambitious A-side flirts with disco beats and draws influence from a variety of schools of contemporary dance music whilst still remaining, at heart, a pop song. This is pop music with texture, depth and nuance; a daring and progressive piece. The B-side includes two new tracks: ‘Sisterly Love’ and ‘Daughter Of The Mind’ which further hint at the deviations we can expect on their second LP. Field recordings, ambient mediations and rhythmic experimentation abound; the new material sees Virginia Wing refining and reworking the sound conjured on their debut, a masterful workout.

19 minutes of brutally up front and relentlessly rowdy hardcore punk, that slams a firm British stamp on the classic Swedish Hardcore blueprint. This wrecking ball sits somewhere between the 80’s Hudiksvall sounds of MISSBRUKARNA, the damaged NO FUTURE confessions of THE PARTISANS and the sheer rock and roll audacity of the SKITKIDS. Back to back riffs that'll stick to your brain like the glue at the bottom of your bag and steaming drums blasts that’ll plough through your skull like a juggernaut driven by a maniac high on amphetamine. Mylo Oxlo provides the artwork once again, perfectly capturing the claustrophobic animosity of the Rat’s latest 12 song romp and rampage. Fittingly dropping on the year of the Rat while the Tories take a strangle hold of the U.K for another 4 years. Hold onto your seat, feel the burn and don’t you dare turn this fucker down.

TOXIC WASTE represents the hardest end of the CRASS milieu. While most anarcho-punk bands of the time sang about a war they’d only seen on TV TOXIC WASTE were being politically active in Belfast during the troubles. They played militant punk with melody and aggression. Borderline hardcore at times with a clear peace-punk message. Angry, intense and in your face. They were involved in the Warzone Collective and shared stages, experiences and activism with bands such as STALAG 17, CONFLICT , ASYLUM and ANTISECT. “Belfast” was originally released in 1987 on Vocalist Roy Wallace’s Belfast Records and has been out of print for 30 years. It was a compilation of previously released tracks and newly recorded versions of old tracks with Dino and Gary from D.I.R.T doing the female vocal parts and guitars. The 12 tracks on “Belfast” are nuggets of raging pissed off DIY anarcho punk with hard hitting lyrics and dual vocals. The recordings are raw and passionate and stand the test of time. The band released an iconic split 12” with STALAG 17 on Mortarhate (1985) - the tracks are included on “Belfast” and then the following year a split LP called We will be Free with STALAG 17 and ASYLUM before calling it a day and becoming a lost piece of the anarcho punk puzzle. This reissue comes with replica sleeve and fold-out lyric insert.

I don’t want to blow, I want to grow! The first Dis-clone? We don't know about that, but these are some early rumblings of Dis-mania, direct from the Merseyside in 1986. For every man, woman or child there is no escape from the dark war horse of This Attack! Disattack. 6 raw bursts of sonic bloodbath that will leave your ears bleeding in a ditch. The fear of doom dawning when the whole world will be bathed in Blood! The 4 song demo is complemented by 2 additional rehearsal songs and a 28 page booklet of archival material, hand-outs and photos. For those who worship Discharge, Anti Cimex and Sacrilege!

Precious Metals are excited to announce "Chaos Butterfly", the debut album from the Vietnamese-Canadian electronic music producer, vocalist and filmmaker, x/o. “Chaos Butterfly” is an epic tale of catharsis and self-actualization explored through metamorphosis. It is a free-falling kaleidoscopic journey into a beautiful nightmare, both cataclysmic and tender. Expanding on the themes present in their first EP “Cocoon Egg”, the album builds a parallel world from a different perspective. “Chaos Butterfly” tells a loose narrative about an anti-hero navigating trauma through whirlwinds of grief and anger; a vengeful spirit who finds true strength in inner healing and forgiveness. An allegory for transcending societal concepts of gender, “Chaos Butterfly” is a journey of self-acceptance and reflection of x/o’s own path towards their non-binary identity. Throughout the voyage, x/o pulls apart and collides masculine and feminine tropes both theoretically and musically by utilising contrasts between soft and hard, internal and external, calmness and anger, loud and quiet. This system of symbolism and influences reveal a pattern that is the overarching theme of duality. Colliding disparate but interconnected influences, x/o references Playstation 2’s Final Fantasy X world-building, Fight Club, the half-yoma warriors in the anime Claymore, as well as the real legends of the Vietnamese Trưng Sisters. Musically, “Chaos Butterfly” resists easy categorisation, playfully fusing moments of reversed breakbeat, with elements of solemn ambience, distorted metal, and trip-hop catharsis, with inspiration from artists such as Yoko Kanno, to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony as well as Deftones, Massive Attack, Orbital, and Aaliyah. The album journey begins with opener “Chrysalis Wrath”, a prologue to the story, and emblematic of the metamorphosis of the album. A soft and unassuming exterior to the hard shell and bone that lies beneath. Delicately cascading melodies and disembodied vocals are torn asunder by a brooding, ominous synth, punctuated by blasts of percussion, like dark clouds forming on the horizon, the egg cracks; a foretelling of what is to come and a reference to what has been. This is followed by “Red Alert,” the first single from the release, which blends airy melancholic vocals with a flurry of drum breaks and synths plucks, an ambitious and cinematic exploration of intuition against recurring trauma. Melodies drifting and out of focus under the swirling vocal, like the blur of neon street lights reflecting in a rain-soaked cityscape. It’s a liminal poem about listening to your inner voice to protect you from harm. Duality is never more apparent than on “Promise : Armour” delicate piano melodies drift and settle like snowfall before crushing blows of hardstyle kicks blast through the ether, as their soulful, but anguished vocal harmony is overcome by a demonic refrain “Cross your heart, don’t cross me”. x/o is a founding member of s.M.i.L.e, a trail-blazing collective of like-minded artists in Vancouver pushing the boundaries of club experimentation, showcasing artists such as Actress, Hitmakerchinx, Mechatok, Nídia, and Shygirl. This is an album that reaches dizzying heights, and in 2022 we expect x/o to do the exact same.

Time Released Sound is pleased to be releasing the new album "Allusionen", from German modern classical artist, Himmelsrandt. The nine tracks on this moody, wintry and melancholic beauty feature the artist Peter Honsalek either on piano and viola, and on four tracks, he additionally plays the mysterious early electronic synthesizer called the Volkstrautonium. This is a somewhat dark and introspective journey through the shortest, coldest days of the year, please pull up a chair by the fire, and put your headphones on!

As Peter says, "The album in general deals with the topic of "allusion". The piano songs reflect the period in which the viola songs were invented (between the years 2019/2020). The viola songs themselves are allusions to certain styles and epochs. To notice this and to classify correctly is the job of the listener.

There are also allusions (music for Piano and the rare Volkstrautonium), which are not intended to refer to specific styles, epochs or compositions, but only to allude to specific cold and snowy days between the years 2019/2020. The aim of the album was to capture the creation of contemporary music in its entirety and make it audible. This includes not only the result, but also the external (musical and non-musical) influences that shaped it.

A new 6-track mini album from a musician with a long list of credits including South African trumpet legend Hugh Masekela, afrobeat co-creator Tony Allen and Ethiopian jazz originator Mulatu Astatke as well as many Brit-jazz and international roots artists. "It's Time" blends spiritual Afro-jazz groove with free improv, spoken poetry and other-worldly atmosphere, with lyrics and titles hinting at unorthodox takes on reality and the times we live in.

Phil Dawson is a top London guitarist who has worked and schooled himself extensively in many different African, Latin and Brazilian music traditions together with styles that more typically cross the radar of someone with a similar British background: roots reggae, punk rock, blues, soul, R'n'B, jazz and funk. As a sideman, he's played with a host of living legends of Afro-fusion music including South African jazz trumpet giant Hugh Masekela, Nigerian afrobeat co-creator Tony Allen, Ethiojazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke, the Algerian "king of rai" Khaled, and London based Ghanaian afro-rock dons Osibisa. Heavy company for sure.

Now he's releasing a new mini 6 track album of original compositions under his own name and band - Phil Dawson ٤-tet - and he's joined by a stellar cast of London's finest players who include Rowland Sutherland (flutes - Airto Moreira, David Murray, Carla Bley), Khadijatou Doyneh (spoken word - The Heliocentrics, Danny Keane), Gaspar Sena (drums - Alfa Mist, Maria Chiara Argiro), Marius Rodrigues (drums - Oriole, Hermeto Hermeto Hermeto), Lekan Babalola (percussion - Cassandra Wilson, Ali Farka Toure) and Matheus Nova (bass - Antonio Forcione, Ed Motta, Jazzinho). Phil himself features on guitars, Fender Rhodes and piano.

'This is great' - Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6 (on 'It's Time)

'Beautiful' - Kassin (producer Caetano Veloso, Sonzeira etc) (on 'It's

Time')

'Rapid-fire guitar work with variety and energy' – The Guardian, UK

'A great guitarist' – Tony Allen

'An absolute killer - irresistible' - Snowboy (on 'Gnostic Hilife')

'Phil Dawson and his (quintet) are really smoking at the mo. No wonder the London jazz young guns are ripping it up with bands

like this leading the way. Miss them at your peril' – Russ Jones (Future World Funk)

Jazzwise Review

The British guitarist Phil Dawson is a fixture of a plethora of Brit-jazz bands and international roots outfits; his nuanced stylings have graced the work of A-listers from Ethio-jazz guru Mulatu Astatke to such late African greats as Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela. Like any an in-demand session player worth his chops Dawson also fronts his own trio/quartet/quintet, all of which allow him to stretch out and do his own thing, which – with his quintet - he does to pleasing effect here.

Buoyed by flute, bass and percussion, It's Time is a six-track brew combining free improv and spoken word with Afro-spiritual groove and a far-out esotericism befitting these strangest of times. Opener 'It's Time (Radio Edit)' is a psychedelic romp through a beneficent cosmos where ringing chords and woodwind trills underpin Khaditjatou Doyneh's pathos-laden musings on love and the universe and one of three variations on a theme. Over three minutes longer at 9:34, 'It's Time (aka Ougama)' is a freewheeling instrumental made dazzling by Dawson's silver-fingered guitar work; Doyneh resumes her pronouncing on the more dissonant but equally mind expanding 'It's Time (Fully Spoken)'. Then there's 'Gnostic Hilife', whose three interpretations each juxtapose the structures of this West African lingua franca in ways tight, spacious and inventive

Die Berliner Band il Civetto ist am vorläufigen Ende einer kreativen Reise bei sich selbst angekommen, indem sie sich neu erfunden hat: Auf ihrem dritten Album »Späti del Sol« gelingt der Band mit sehnsuchtsvollen Melodien und mitreißender Gute-Laune-Musik eine neue Pop-Internationale. Fühl- und Erlebbarkeit ist auf »Späti del Sol« der Schlüssel. Die wehmütige Ballade »Barbazan« führt direkt in die Spätsommertage der französischen Pyrenäen, das elegant flirrende »Couscous mit Auberginen« lässt ohne Umwege die Aromen im Kopf explodieren, die durch ein Wechselbad der Gefühle swingende »Viel zu viel« zieht einen aus dem täglichen Hamsterrad direkt auf den Dancefloor. Der Titelsong »Späti del Sol« vertont Fernweh, Sehnsucht und das Gefühl, unterwegs zu sein ebenso wie die positive Energie einer lauen Sommernacht bei Rotwein mit gutem Essen und noch besseren Gesprächen. Kein Zufall: Der Mikrokosmos Späti hat in der Geschichte dieser Band eine zentrale Bedeutung: »Als wir früher in der U-Bahn gespielt haben, war vorher immer Treffpunkt am Späti«, sagt Sänger Leon Keiditsch, »und auch jetzt haben wir uns während der Pandemie mit Vorliebe am Späti versammelt.« Mit dieser von Liebe und Wärme erfüllten Musik haben sich il Civetto nun gewissermaßen einen eigenen Späti gebaut: Es ist ein utopischer Ort, an dem alle willkommen sind und wo der spielerisch-poetische Umgang mit Sprache und Musik den Gästen für einen Moment die Schwere nimmt - und sie sie leicht und beschwingt gen Himmel steigen lässt. Wie Friedenstauben. Da il Civetto ihre gesellschaftlichen und politischen Anliegen ebenso wichtig sind, wie die Musik selbst, sind die neuen Songs auf Deutsch getextet. Durchaus ein künstlerisches Wagnis, das aber voll und ganz aufgegangen ist. il Civetto haben für »Späti del Sol« eine derart hochpoetische, tänzelnde und sehnsuchtsvolle Pop-Sprache entworfen, dass man sich diese Lieder gar nicht mehr anders vorstellen kann. il Civetto sind auf »Späti del Sol« durchgehend »En Route«, also unterwegs, so der Titel eines weiteren, besonders gelungenen Songs, der die Bewegung mit hymnischer Kraft in sich aufgesogen hat, in der die Musiker sich zu großen Teilen der Produktion dieses Albums befanden.Es ist noch nicht so lange her, als nicht Protektionismus und Abschottung, sondern Ideen von einer gerechteren und besseren Welt die Diskurse beherrschten. il Civetto erinnern uns wieder daran - mit unwiderstehlichen Hits, zu denen man auf die Straße rennen, im Regen tanzen, wildfremde Menschen umarmen und im »Späti del Sol« Bier trinken will. Am Sehnsuchtsort »Späti del Sol« werden Visionen von einer gerechteren Welt im Geiste des Pop wahr, deshalb ist diese Musik so gut. Die Reise von il Civetto ist längst noch nicht zu Ende!"Späti del Sol" ist in Zusammenarbeit mit den Produzenten Ralf Christian Mayer (Cro, Clueso, Mark Forster) und Tim Tautorat (AnnenMayKantereit, Faber, Provinz) entstanden und ist ab 20.05.22 als CD & limitierte Vinyl & digital als Stream und im Download erhältlich und ab sofort vorbestellbar. Im Sommer ist die Berliner Band deutschlandweit auf der Späti del Sol Tour & Festivals live erlebbar.

Sdban Records is delighted to announce the reissue of this genre-defying jazz album originally released on library label Selection Records in 1972.

Delving into the story of the American pianist and composer Phil Raphaël reveals more questions than answers. He was born in New York where he played with Charlie Parker, Jon Eardley and Howard McGhee, but a 1951 recording with Red Rodney for Prestige Records is the single remaining trace of his bebop days. Raphaël appeared under unknown circumstances in Belgium in the 1960s, playing among others at the 1966 Jazz Bilzen festival, and he eventually settled in Brussels. A multifaceted musician, he did not limit himself to jazz and also worked in pop groups, directed the music for the spectacle Hair, and even had a brief residency at Pol's Jazz Club where he played the music of Johann Sebastian Bach four nights per week.

His album 'Stop, Look, Listen', which was recorded with the rhythm section of Babs Robert's group, consists of four long genre-defying tracks colored by the dreamlike vocals of opera singer Rose Thompson. A surreal blend of genres, hard to pin down. It's highly imaginative jazz, that much is sure. Raphaël shifts from serene late night piano jazz to more free or even spiritual passages, magnificently paired with the otherworldly vocals of Rose Thompson. The LP was put out by Selection Records, a label that primarily issued library music at the time, and thus went largely unnoticed upon release. The recording makes clear that Phil Raphaël was a highly gifted artist whose talent will forever remain undervalued, since it was his only effort as a leader. Raphaël's passage through the Belgian nightlife was just as mysterious as his music, and few people seem to remember him. Drummer Bruno Castellucci describes him as remarkable, both as a musician and as a person: "He was a hippie before there were hippies. He wasn't part of the system but he had a system of his own."

„Worldwide Underground“ ist das dritte Studio-Album der amerikanischen Sängerin Erykah Badu und wurde erstmals am 16. September 2003 von Motown Records veröffentlicht. Das Album enthält HipHop- und Funk-Elemente und zeichnet sich durch eine unkonventionelle musikalische Struktur und ein minimalistisches Songwriting aus, dass sich mit der Hip-Hop-Kultur, der Liebe, dem Leben im Ghetto und der Gang-Kultur befasst. Auf dem Album treten die Rapper Dead Prez und Common sowie die Sängerinnen Queen Latifah, Bahamadia und Angie Stone auf.

Am 25. Februar erscheint „Worldwide Underground“ als Deep Purple Coloured 1LP.

"The focus of this project and presentation examines the art of mental persuasion and how the mind can control as well as fall vulnerable to subservient ways. It allows the means to look creatively and more in-depth to a subject that applies to every person and at every stage of life because how we perceive or sense something is part of our evolutionary survival pattern. " -Jeff Mills

Mind Power Mind Control

The focus of this project and presentation examines the art of mental persuasion and how the mind can control as well as fall vulnerable to subservient ways. It allows the means to look creatively and more in-depth to a subject that applies to every person and at every stage of life because how we perceive or sense something is part of our evolutionary survival pattern. Because there is no exact mental compatibility between any of us, speculation and misconceptions are not exemplary so, an emphasis on "the presentation of facts, ideas and methods and what we knew as true by example" are the major points that drives the overall purpose of this album project.

Mainly artistic but scientifically as well, the album will explore various techniques used to control minds, physicality of people and inanimate objects. The objective of this project is to examine, reveal and demonstrate how humans have created metaphysical and mind-bending techniques to control people, they're minds, societies and our outlook on reality and life.

-Jeff Mills

Trust is a testament to resilience. The past two years have been tough for just about everyone, and while it would have been easy for Catnapp to let feelings of despair soak into her creative process, she refused to succumb to darkness. The Berlin-based Argentinian was determined to make something bright, energetic and uplifting, and nothing—not even a global catastrophe—was going to stop her from rallying people to the dancefloor.

Her new LP is loaded with futuristic pop hooks, yet Trust offers so much more than a simple sugar rush. This a record that defiantly smashes through genre boundaries, hoovering up high-octane bits of hip-hop, R&B, rave and even numetal along the way. Catnapp—an accomplished shapeshifter who’s never been afraid to get weird—is just as comfortable throwing down brash rhymes as she is singing dreamy ballads or unleashing a primal scream, and on Trust, all of those things (and more) frequently happen within the confines of a single song. Call it hyperpop if you must, but pop concentrate might be a more accurate term.

With the VOI 030 - "Sense", the project Z.I.P.P.O enters a new sphere within its own sound direction. This release is characterized by IDM texture work, glitchy percussion and drum patterns, that find their room within deep atmospheric spaces and carefully placed delay programming. Certainly, recognizable is Maffei's eclectic taste for more complex electronic bits, which are also known from his more demanding DJ sets. "Sense" brings together different factettes of his nicely equipped studio arrangement, as you get to hear a range of grainy saturated hardware synthesis to innovative and more complex sound design. The sound of this record combines a bit of everything while keeping its very own character. If you like to give it a name, then it might feel like Aphex Twin meets Doppler Effekt and Pan Sonic.

Verve und seine Schwesterlabels Impulse, Mercury und Emarcy bieten Vinylfans mit der ACOUSTIC SOUNDS-Serie eine audiophile LP-Serie für gehobene Ansprüche. Hierfür arbeitet Verve mit dem bekannten amerikanischen Vinyl-Label Acoustic Sounds zusammen:

- Fertigung mit 100% ANALOGEN PRODUKTIONSSCHRITTEN
- Mastering vom ERSTE-GENERATION-MASTERBAND
- 180G-PRESSUNG bei Quality Record Pressings
- laminierte TIP-ON-GATEFOLD-SLEEVES & WATTIERTE INNENHÜLLEN

wieder lieferbar Cluster boten live eine Art Performancekunst, die wesentlich aus Improvisation, Krach, bewusster Vermeidung von rhythmisch-harmonischen Strukturen und dem zügellosen Einsatz elektronischer Klangerzeuger bestand. Dazu kamen Auftrittsdauern von bis zu sechs Stunden, in denen Künstler und Publikum nicht selten in rauschhafte Zustände gerieten. Clusters Musik war anfänglich roh, brutal, spontan und wurde mit einfachstem Equipment - keine Synthesizer, keine Sequencer, keine High-End-Verstärker - erzeugt. Hans-Joachim Roedelius und Dieter Moebius ließen keine mechanischen Prozesse ablaufen. Sie benutzten ihre Maschinen, aber verließen sich nicht auf sie. Vielmehr setzten sie auf Intuition. Das Experiment glückte nicht immer, aber oft. Dann spürte man tatsächlich so etwas wie Magie und hörte das Entstehen einer utopischen Klangwelt. Die zwei von Moebius und Roedelius autorisierten Mitschnitte dieses Albums geben eindrücklich die Atmosphäre und die Magie eines Cluster-Auftritts wieder. Der eine fand 1977 während eines Science-Fiction-Festivals in Metz statt, der andere entstand im Januar 1972 bei einem Auftritt in der Hamburger Fabrik. Die Tonqualität ist mäßig, weil damals das Gelingen der Performance wichtiger war als ihre perfekte Aufzeichnung. Wir heutigen Hörer sollten das akzeptieren.

Following releases with YAM, Tiff’s Joints, Dr Banana and Touching Bass, artist Romaal Kultan (Ollie Malin) now inaugurates his own record label, Personal Discs.

No Time Like The Future showcases Romaal Kultan’s finest productions, charting a distinct personal trajectory between hiphop, house and broken beat. Opener One Moment Please is a sassy boom bap affair, with an unexpected nod towards jungle. Music Room, made in collaboration with producer Cypriano, is a patient, moody chugger — a tapestry of piano, organic percussion and crackly vinyl samples laced with acid.

On the B-side, Personal Effects delivers a unique, hypnotic broken beat groove, where swelling synths and a twinkling Rhodes meditate together in careful arrangement. Finally, the intimate title track No Time Like the Future stomps off into the sunrise, carried along by a rolling, yearning dreaminess.

Each one of these tracks represents a special, all-too-rare moment of ecstasy in the studio. I hope that this feeling lives on in the music.

So far the record has received support from Alexander Nut, Mr Scruff, Lefto, Kai Alcé, Bradley Zero, Mary Anne Hobbes, K15, Dr Banana, Alex Attias, EVM128, Zakia, Shy One, Tereza, Alia, Earl Jeffers, Footshooter, K-Lone, Poison Zcora, Dean Chew, Marcia Carr, Leanne Wright, Dead Man’s Chest and more.

Ramos, Supreme & Sunset Regime are names better known for making hardcore of all types throughout the 90s, but as so many did, they also made some epic jungle tracks, and here we have a couple of their sublime but never before released dubplate tracks. Morning Glory is a more traditional jungle track, with subtle hardcore influences. It has a pace and a feel that will put a smile on your face and make any morning feel glorious. Menawhile, Alien in the Jungle draws more on the early days of hardcore rave, mixing it with the jungle beats but keeping the aural soundscape that the early RSR tracks had. It is a journey of discovery and fulfilment.

Well-loved vocal starlets of the drum and bass scene, Riya and Collette Warren have teamed up to create the stunning vocalist lead LP, ‘Two Sides of Everything’. Both originally hailing from Birmingham the women have been friends for more decade, making this a powerfully personal project. This groundbreaking album is the first time two female vocalists have teamed up in the world of 170, and the release enlists some of the scenes best-known producers from all corners of DNB’s eclectic spectrum.

With tracks from seasoned veterans such as Technimatic and Mercury Prize Award Winner Roni Size and leaders of the new school like Whiney and Monrroe and the pair have ensured all musical areas of the scene are represented. Making sure to include some more female talent, the album also includes Kyrist, and vocal support from Sofi Mari and the legendary Tali who was a huge formative influence on this duo growing up. Separately both artists have carved out significant notches within drum and bass, with their vocals on tracks being heard on timeless classics such as the forever beautiful ‘Kismet’ by Hybrid Minds and the haunting ‘One Exception’ with DJ Marky and Tyler Daley.

Second volume of this collection of pure Funk, Afro Beat and African Funk music is out!
This chapter, as previous one, includes highly respected artists such as Mandrill, The Wild Magnolias, Manu Dibango, Fela Kuti, Tony Allen, Buddy Miles and many others, but also includes the very rare and exclusive long version of “Sangadongo” from Niagara.
All these artists guarantee the high quality of this collection, a record that any funk lover can’t miss: the real funk from the origins and the groove in its free form.

After more than two decades flexing his muscles on the local underground scene and gaining a legendary cult status on his Tenerife home turf, the island’s most famous postman, as he’s affectionately known by his consorts, Tomás de la Rosa aka Postman breaks radio silence to bulldoze his way through the canyons surrounding his hometown of Santa Cruz into an unknown and unsuspecting world. We present thus, Postman’s first ever album of original bangers, micro chopped two steppers and rage induced breakbeat anthems.

Constructed over the course of global confinement, Seeds of Light marks a return to creative activity from the man who regularly delivers your post (its not just a random artist name). Postman aka Tomás de la Rosa has taken his time, compiling sketches and unfinished songs, rummaging through the deep ends of his hardrive, stitching early production sketches with recent compositions, revising, reediting and rebuilding with a more mature and concise attitude, eventually completing, almost unintentionally, the perfect self referential retrospective album. Far from being just a compilation album, Tomás managed to create an explosive document, suspended in time, in which styles are intertwined regardless of fashions and fads – letting go of the ‘modern’ or ‘up to date’ burden - so common these days in electronic music.

It is not an easy album, like many of his previous work it demands extra attention to experience the full crystallization of his complex sound structures. We find ourselves in front of a truly surgically precise work of art whose result comes as a waterproof war machine, refined and incisive, resonating deep with soul and groove.

Postman develops his sound palette throughout the album from very basic sound snippets into a concrete dance world of synthetic sounds eventually creating a parallel reality where J. Dilla could be living in Chemnitz instead of Detroit and releasing records for a label called Raster-Throw. Glitch sampladelics!

Incursions into Grime are also abundant with nods to the ineffable East Man, reunions with his beloved Funkstörung or many other stimulating revisions of lifelong genres and breaks populate this multidimensional sound space, see soul, dancehall, breakbeat, two step and the UK hardcore continuum.

Special mention to the magnificent fluid artwork by the very talented Catalan visual artist Alba de Corral. A still photo from one of her kinetic AI systems programmed directly in code, which matches perfectly the essence of Postman's brutalist alien sound.

Vinyl limited to 200 copies

Orange Vinyl

The Light Inside, The Dark Outside is Italian ambient duo ILUITEQ's third full-length album.
The Light Inside, The Dark Outside is out on May 6th on limited edition orange vinyl (plus download card with bonus track)
Influenced by the uncertainty and precariousness of the current times, the album was conceived as a means to nourish the light inside all of us, no matter how difficult and dark the reality can turn out to be.
Such "light" is reflected in the album's widescreen and hopefully ardent ambient. In contrast to their previous albums, The Light Inside, The Dark Outside is permeated by a strong sense of motion. The Light Inside, The Dark Outside is an evolution for the duo, themed by the inner need for brightness and hope.